I shot Wade and his garden on the hottest day of the summer. I decided, since it was all about his garden and los angeles and it was for the New York Times, that I wanted to shoot at sunset with warm golden light. I wanted to make east coasters jealous, just a little bit. And even though I showed up at 3 or 4 o clock, it was still somewhere around 95 degrees and humid. So I love the images, but it was not an easy shoot because of the heat.

Wade was great to work with. He told me all about his garden while I shot. We talked about LA and plants and bees and adventures. It was great and easy going. Loved reading the article because he’s a really fascinating person who’s led an interesting life. He was shy about having his picture taken so we kept it really brief — it was funny to see his portrait was the hero image for the article (see it here).

That’s been a big part of my learning curve working with different editors all the time. Sometimes I love what they choose for the final images and sometimes I’m really disappointed. Overall, I have been so so happy with what the Times has chosen. They also do a little extra retouching of the photos–crunch the blacks and add some saturation, and I like it.

These are some of the images that didn’t make it in that I liked–the crazy Aloe Forest, the view driving up to the house in los feliz at sunset, the peek into the chartreuse side yard from the bathroom. See the whole NYT slideshow here.

Here are some outtakes from another nyt shoot I loved.